Building a mobile app for a Fortune 500 chemical company

A leading chemical company needed a mobile app so its partner sales reps could get information quickly, without leaving the customer's side. Once they had it, sales volume spiked.

Situation

Mobile app needed to drive revenue

A large chemical manufacturer engaged Sketch to develop a mobile app for automotive dealerships. The ability to create “in the moment” up-sell opportunities for adding protective coatings and tints to a car purchase would drive revenue for both the chemical company and dealerships.

Challenge

Develop a mobile app fast after others have failed

When a customer looking to purchase a car inquired about protective coatings and/or tints, the dealership sales rep would have to return to their computer and enter the Vehicle Identification Number to receive a display of options for that car.

Dated tech hurting sales

The dealership salespeople soon discovered that while protective coatings and tints were a nice upsell, the process removed them from their potential customer, and excitement and forward momentum were lost. As a result, the dealership salespeople were not proposing these high-profit margin additional services.

Software outsourcing gone wrong

Hoping to capture upsell directly in the moment, the chemical manufacturer needed a mobile app that could be used to scan the VIN while the dealership salesperson is at the car and with the prospective customer. A large consulting partner was brought in to assist. Unfortunately, after many months, no software was delivered. As a second attempt, the chemical company decided to “go it alone” with their own IT staff.

Lack of internal resources

Unfortunately, other priorities kept the internal team from really focusing on delivering the mobile app. As more months slipped by, it became clear this was not the solution either.

Enter Sketch

Solution

Top mobile application developers in the USA

Through initial discovery discussions, the chemical company realized they needed more than just development assistance, they also needed to upskill their technical staff through a modern development framework.

Software delivery consulting

The team working to develop the mobile app were new to Agile and wanted to use the engagement as a catalyst for improving their creation of feature stories, automating integration and delivery pipelines, writing better code, and expanding test automation. Sketch, already providing Coaching support to another area of the chemical company, was brought in for development support to drive the creation of the mobile app through Agile best practices.

Outcome-driven software development

Sketch’s initial focus was on getting the team’s arms around their Work In Process and introducing a more rigorous method of writing feature stories. Through this, it became evident that the team could also benefit from Coaching, as the Product Owner was struggling to represent the needs of the stakeholders, making it difficult to scope and size requested features.

Alignment behind goals

Coaching and facilitation activities brought about the alignment of stakeholders needs and goals with the Product Owner, Scrum Master and the team.

CI/CD and rapid app development

Sketch technical experts worked with the development staff to build continuous integration capabilities, versioning and branching for iOS and Android builds and tutored in React Native development language. These efforts led to more accurately estimated, tested, and delivered features.

Results

Mobile app delivered in two months

Increased sales

In just over two months, the chemical company had an app deployed through the Apple App Store, with beta users across 12 dealerships. The auto sales staff were thrilled to have a way of offering upsell and value-added opportunities to their sale all without leaving prospective customer’s side. Importantly, this increased satisfaction came with an increase in sales.

Faster processes

The chemical company’s technical team was also better aligned and able to take advantage of its newly automated processes.

Continued work

The engagement was such a success we were retained for another round of development work. The client asked Sketch to produce an original web application to integrate with the mobile app for receiving data, order processing and deploying coating and tint specifications to cutting machines. This process of iterative development allowed the client to invest in further enhancements after validating that their new software was driving revenue.

Technologies leveraged

React Native

Using a modern mobile app development language made it easier to deploy across all devices.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

“The engagement has gone really well as a whole and adding a coach a few weeks into the engagement was a great addition and extremely helpful. Feeling really good about the state of the mobile app and what Sketch has done in such a short amount of time.”

Digital product solutions manager

Chemical enterprise